


Language Barriers Sure Are Frustrating

by calibratingentropy



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-29
Updated: 2012-01-29
Packaged: 2017-10-30 08:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/329593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calibratingentropy/pseuds/calibratingentropy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The kids and trolls meet up on the meteor and discover one tiny problem. They're facing an immense language barrier that prevents them from communicating. (Written before Act 6 Intermission I)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Human Language Sure Is Weird

**Author's Note:**

> Repost (and unanoning!) from the Kink Meme. Now with proper formatting and colors for everyone.

Finally. They were going to see the humans in person at last. Aradia had just landed with the news, and was now fixing up Sollux--god damn idiot had nearly scared him to death when they'd arrived but he wasn't dead. Just so close it was a miracle he _hadn't_ died. 

Karkat wasn't going to tell anyone this, but he was kind of excited and nervous both. They were weird looking with their pink skin and hornless heads, but they'd done this together. They'd survived together, and he was a little curious to actually hear them for the first time. He actually had no idea how to say any of their names because for some reason Trollian had kept screwing up and dropping out the important bits. Did Rose's name begin with a trill? He thought it had to, because most words with the "r" at the beginning did, but the symbols for what _kind_ and how long to hold it had been stripped right the fuck out. Maybe it was a growl, but that made zero sense. God dammit. He didn't even want to get started on the rest of her name, or John or Jade's at all. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He just knew he was going to screw this up and make a complete ass of himself. 

"You're all tense up in here, bro. What's swimming around in that thinkpan?" The words were enough warning that he didn't flinch when Gamzee's arms slid around him from behind but it was a close thing. Karkat hissed a little at him, but it lacked any heat. Gamzee was back to his usual lilting--and actually way nicer to listen to than when he was out of his mind on sopor, almost like real singing--but Karkat could hear his distress. His lower thrum-folds where cycling too fast, making his words come out tight like a distressed wiggler's did. To add to that, his moirail was shaking all over. 

"I am going to butcher their names like some nooksniffing moron, I just know it." Karkat put his arms over Gamzee's and fitted the bases of their horns together, trying to ignore the hot tangy scent of dried and not so dried blood all over his friend. He couldn't do anything about the pain and sickness emanating from the other troll, except offer to find more sopor somehow, and Gamzee had unequivically refused to ever have sopor again. Funny how even a few hours ago he would have been happy about that but now he wished Gamzee wouldn't be so fucking stubborn. 

"Do you think it's Rose?" he asked, adding the trill he thought should be there. "Or maybe it's Ro-- damn pink aliens and their weird grubmunching names." If it was a growl, there was no way he'd ever get it right, because that sounded just so monumentally wrong. 

Gamzee laughed, thrumming underneath it in his own clumsy attempt at soothing Karkat's worries. It was sweet, Gamzee trying so hard to be a good moirail in return, not that Karkat actually needed any kind of pacifying. "Don't get your worry on, brother. There will be all around name butchering up on this roof when they come. It'll be a motherfucking miracle--" there was a sharp stuttering pause there as Gamzee went tense, but the moment passed and he continued, "if they don't get up with the wrong buzz in either my name or Terezi's." 

"Shut the fuck up." Karkat rolled his eyes, even if he was feeling better all the sudden. "Even trolls get lazy with using the right buzz frequencies." 

"They're here." Kanaya's interruption caught his attention and Karkat looked up. Sure enough, four of the weird pink aliens were floating down at them. The excited chirps in Kanaya's throat made him want to smirk. Somebody was flush crushing hard. "Oh, and Rose made god-tier." 

And that was a completely different trill than he'd thought to use. God dammit. Alright, screw names! Karkat raised his hand in greeting as they made landing. "Well look who showed up finally! You all look even more like idiots in person than I thought." 

Oh hell no, he was chirping too, but even worse than Kanaya's it was more like a tiny wiggler's chirps at a lusus for attention. Fuck it all! So much for a strong leaderly impression. He wasn't an expert in the subtleties of human expressions, but he was pretty sure those were looks of utter dumbfounded second-hand embarrassment. Karkat could feel the embarrassment flooding his cheeks with cherry red. Fuck-- And _fuck_ , that was a very dangerous rumble coming from Gamzee's echo-box and vibrating against his back. Right. Fuck. Fuck. Gamzee had said that Dave had shown him some video with "the most motherfucking awful unmusical deranged shit-sounds and blasphemous subtitles" and pissed him the fuck off. Karkat came so close to adding to it with a rumble of his own, because that one thing had pretty much caused the whole damn mess with Gamzee, but barely managed to restrain himself and shooshed Gamzee instead until his moirail's rumbling snarls were soothed to something less dangerous than 'I want to rip his motherfucking throat out with my bare claws.' Karkat hoped to god that Kanaya was up to some auspisticing, because something in the tone of that was edging close to something a little...caliginous and that was the last fucking thing he needed. 

Terezi had bounded up to the one in red--Dave, Karkat was almost positive--but he'd missed what she was saying to the human. What he didn't miss was the sounds the human made in turn. What in the bulgelicking hell was that? Not a single buzz or click or trill. No real hisses or thrums or chirps or growls. It was all weird, tightly compressed mouth-sounds, drawn out and focused on like the moans in romcom movies' pailing scenes. It sounded so very, very _lewd_. 

"What is all that motherfucking noise up in my hear ducts? They really make all those motherfucking moaning sounds when they talk?" Was that a low, sultry chirp? Dammit, Gamzee really was waxing caliginous for the human. Of all the nookstained luck. From the way John had reacted in complete idiocy when Karkat had described quadrants, that was going to go so extremely well. 

Then Jade was stepping forward while Terezi was still pestering Dave, and raised her arm. For a second he thought Jade had grown horns, but then Karkat realized she just had...ears? where horns should be. He knew for a fact that she hadn't had them before, so maybe it was a part of becoming god-tier? The weird part was that she had her hands raised in a gesture of surrender and helplessness, and it made him kind of want to pounce her and force her to the ground. Gamzee tensed and he gripped his moirail's hands to his chest more tightly. The other boy had felt that predatory instinct too, and from the looks of things, so had Kanaya and Aradia both. He could never be sure how well Terezi perceived movement but she'd stopped and tilted her head towards Jade. Fuck. He needed to get a handle on this fast before it blew up in their faces. Karkat raised his voice and even managed to get a nice, authoritative rumble going. Excellent! 

Except why in hell were all the humans flinching like preybeasts like that? Whatever. "Listen up, you grubstains! We've got some kind of serious communication problem going here, so settle the fuck down and for the love of god nobody give in the urge to pounce them, okay? There's got to be some way we can rig our husktops to connect to theirs again. Maybe Sollux--shit." 

Sollux was still unconscious and looking like shit to boot, but at least he was giving off the heat he should, so he would probably recover just fine. Karkat hoped. It didn't do a damn thing for their communication problem though. After a moment of tense verbal silence--Gamzee was still rumbling, and he could faintly hear soft clicks and thrums from Terezi and Aradia--Kanaya stepped forward and pulled out her husktop. 

"While I cannot be sure of any reasonable chance of success I will try once again to connect to the humans' husktops. Perhaps I can engage Trollian's subtitle and translation function to convert their words on the screen, if no other option is available." She was thrumming loudly in a soothing manner, and even added her upper thrum-folds to it once she was done speaking. No one was unaffected, and Gamzee even relaxed a little, rumble quieting a notch further. Well, maybe it would be better to say that none of the trolls were unaffected. The humans just started throwing uncomfortable looks Kanaya's way. 

The humans were making their alien noises at each other while Kanaya worked and Karkat wondered the what the hell they were talking about. Gamzee seemed relatively under control though, so he dropped his hands and pulled out his own husktop. Maybe if Kanaya couldn't--who was he kidding? 

After a few minutes Kanaya started chirping happily. Success? "Contacting them individually has proven impossible, but I believe I can invite them to a memo so we may converse. I will do the same with all of us as well."

CURRENT grimAuxiliatrix [CGA] RIGHT NOW opened memo on board First Contact

CGA: I Believe This Should Be A Sufficient If Somewhat An Inefficient Manner Of Communicating In Person  
CGA: However As There Seems To Be No Recourse We Will Have To Content Ourselves With Memos  
CGA: Now Why Dont We Settle In And Formally Introduce Ourselves  
CURRENT turntechGodhead [CTG] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CTG: i am not cozying up to any of you  
CTG: not after juggalo troll pulled that growling shit  
CTG: seriously you still mad bro  
CURRENT gardenGnostic [CGG] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CGG: dave!!! be nice  
CGG: maybe he was play growling like a puppy! :)  
CURRENT carcinoGeneticist [CCG] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CCG: GOD FUCKING DAMMIT, GAMZEE.  
CCG: CHANGE THAT FREQUENCY BACK RIGHT THIS MINUTE.  
CCG: IF YOU START BLACK CRUSHING ON THAT HUMAN, I SWEAR I WILL CUT OUT YOUR ECHO-BOX WITH YOUR OWN HORNS.  
CCG: I SAID BACK, NOT EVEN MORE CALIGINOUS.  
CTG: oh my god i did not need to know that  
CTG: i would have been happy never knowing what you just chirp click growled at him  
CTG: i know you cant help it juggalo bro  
CTG: but the awesome sexy strider ass is off limits  
CURRENT terminallyCapricious [CTC] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CURRENT ectoBiologist [CEB] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CTC: awwww, bro, i'm just messing with the motherfucker's head.  
CEB: wow i loved that movie. this is so cool.  
CEB: what did you mean by frequency?  
CTC: AND YOU'RE GETTING ON YOUR THROAT RIPPING RUMBLES ALL AT HIM FOR ME ALREADY.  
CEB: it's so weird that we can't understand each other.  
CEB: usually in movies everybody just speaks in english and you guys are all typing in english.  
CGA: On The Contrary We Are All Typing In Alternian As We Always Have  
CURRENT gallowsCalibrator [CGC] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CGC: H3H3H3 YOU C4NT FOOL TH3 K33N H34R DUCTS OF TH3 L3G1SL4C3R4TOR G4MZ33  
CGC: B3 G3NTL3 W1TH D4V3  
CGC: H3 SM3LLS FR4G1L3  
CGC: 4ND D3L1C1OUS >8D  
CTG: shit terezi i made god-tier  
CTG: i am not fragile  
CCG: TEREZI TAKE THAT SHIT TO THE LOAD GAPER.  
CCG: STOP ENCOURAGING HIM.  
CCG: I WILL BAN ALL YOUR ASSES.  
CCG: SHIT  
CCG: I CAN'T.  
CGA: Relax Karkat  
CGA: I Will Auspistice Between Them If It Becomes Necessary  
CURRENT tentacleTherapist [CTT] RIGHT NOW responded to memo.  
CTT: As entertaining as your petty arguments about romantic entanglements are, we have moved away from the topic.  
CTT: In fact, we're so far from the topic that it's on the other side of the ring.  
CTT: Why don't we get back to introductions and figuring out how to get over this spectacular and intriguing language barrier.  
CTT: No, that was not a question.

Karkat tried in vein to stop his own rumbling, though he was pretty sure it was at all of them, and not just at Dave. Well, fine, it was only mostly at Dave. The human was such a nookslurping--agh! He was actually more worked up than Gamzee was, unless you counted the fact that Gamzee was still rumbling in a very black crushing way at Dave. This was completely hopeless. 

"Shoosh, bro." Gamzee started thrumming a little, and leaned over to fit the bases of their horns together again. Huh, maybe they could do this a little bit two way, because Karkat found himself relaxing a little as the crabbiness ebbed away. He was worried to hell about Gamzee though; he'd seen how badly his hands were shaking when he was trying to type, and he was sure Gamzee would have had more to say if not for that. 

Then Rose went and started the introductions with herself. _That_ was how the humans said her name? How could you even...? Karkat tried, but it made his mouth feel weird and his upper thrum-folds almost ache. No way; he wasn't going to bother if it was that much trouble. Instead he inserted a short trill--not really the right trill to begin a word, but whatever--and a buzz to make something that sounded as close as he could get. 

So it wasn't anything really close at all, but the humans where having just as much trouble with their names so fuck them up the waste chute if they complained. His own name sounded almost unrecognizable without the clicks and the trill. It turned out the humans weren't only incapable of more than half of the sounds that made up Alternian, but they couldn't tell the differences between frequencies well at all. Karkat was starting to wonder if they weren't all mostly deaf, because it was so fucking obvious. It wasn't like the differences were some of the really subtle nuances that, okay, he could see even some trolls having trouble with. 

This was so frustrating. Karkat rubbed his temples and watched as Rose and Kanaya got into a discussion on the memo. Whoa, wait. "Seriously? Only one set of thrum-folds? No echo-box? How the fuck do they communicate their moods? With just their faces?"

Kanaya just shrugged at him, and Terezi was making all kinds of thoughtful clicks while she tried to get Dave to say a closer version of her name. Augh, this was hopeless. But at least they could talk over the husktops. Karkat shuddered to think of how much hoofbeast shit they'd be in if they didn't have that.

Human language was so fucking weird.


	2. Troll Language Sure Is Weird

Dave Strider, legendary coolkid, was fucking ecstatic to be alive. He wasn't going to tell anyone this, of course, because his image would go right down the toilet, but there it was. He was going to enjoy every single moment from now on; that was his new creed. He would implement it soon, because right now they were on their way to meet the trolls. In spite of himself, he was actually looking forward to it. Terezi would be a riot, at least, and he was kind of looking forward to doing some in person trolling of that awkward one with the brown text and slamming with the indigo one in person. They'd gotten on some fucking sweet rhymes and riffs the first time, and he had to resist the urge to shiver at the thought of bouncing off someone who could appreciate his unrivaled genius and match it. Almost match it, he meant. Even if the rest of the time he'd been fucking creepy with the juggalo shit and the crazy talk. Making the universe terminal? What the shit, seriously. 

He'd had to cool his heels with Rose for a bit until Jade showed up, not that he really minded. They got down to examining their new outfits. Dave wasn't too thrilled with the hood but he couldn't argue with the color and the cape was pretty cool. Impractical as hell, but if he had the power of a god that wasn't going to be a problem. He hoped. Rose was less than thrilled with the color of hers, and they spent some time heckling each other until Jade arrived with John in tow. Alright, time to go meet the trolls. 

But how the hell were they supposed to know where they were? Dave raised his eyebrow at Jade. "Hate to harsh on our glee but how're we supposed to find their asteroid or whatever?"

Jade giggled and spun around, acting like she knew something he didn't. The dog ears were kind of weird, but they didn't actually look awful. Just ironic. Yeah. Ironic. Then she pointed and Dave saw a faint mustard yellow light heading towards them. "That's them! We just need to get around to the other side of the sun." 

The sun. The sun they were supposed to have destroyed but somehow ended up creating. They were really fucked, but that was for later, because he was having a little trouble keeping up. Looked like John and Jade were really eager to meet their troll frenemies. He turned to look at Rose and shared with her the most ironic shrug before heading after them. This was going to take some getting used to. 

And sure enough, as they got closer to the slowly dying light, there was an asteroid in the center of it. Then the light flickered out all of the sudden and he was worried they might lose it. That's when they came on a trail of what he could only call pixie dust, glittering in a straight path right towards the asteroid. Well, that was helpful and way too much of a coincidence. Dave was still trying to figure out what it could be and if he should be worried when they got close enough to see what was on the roof of one of the buildings on the asteroid. Part of him commented that there was no way that thing had enough atmosphere to breathe but shit, he'd just been in space himself. Game things; real world rules need not fucking apply. There were people up there waiting and... did one of them have giant fairy wings? Wait, two of them and they were wearing things similar to him and Rose--well, shit, why didn't his god tier include fairy wings. Not that he wanted wings at all because they were terminally uncool, but it was the principle of the trolls getting something they didn't. Fuck the game. 

Then they were close enough to make out more details and his stomach suddenly turned. If he hadn't known about their rainbow blood he would have thought the splashes of color all over the whole fucking roof _and_ most of them was just paint, but this... shit. One of the ones with the fairy wings was lying in a big puddle of some shade of blue, and there were swaths of green and purple all over. One of them--was she glowing?--had yellow all over her and it looked like it had come from the other body that the live one with wings was leaning over. What the shit were these trolls on? Okay he'd heard that a few had died-died but leaving the body in the puddle of blood so casually like that... 

"Oh no, Vriska--" John had his hands up to his face, looking upset. 

Vriska? Probably the one in the puddle, then. He remembered that John had been talking to her a lot. Dave was still drifting closer with the rest of them but he wanted to turn the hell around. At least he couldn't spot anything that looked like it might be Terezi's color, and that was surprisingly comforting. "Having second thoughts here, guys. They're all kinds of nuts just in text, and being all in person with them when they just leave bodies out like that... That's way not cool." 

Jade looked a disturbed too, but there was steel underneath it. "It's too late now; we have to meet up with them. It'll be okay. They're just... really different."

Just different, his ass. But Jade had a point; there was nowhere else for them to go right now. "I'm not really down with this, but let's go say hi to our little troll friends." 

Little was actually a misnomer, because as they got closer Dave realized that the fucking smallest of them was taller than him, and he had three inches on John and one on Rose. Suddenly he felt small and that was not cool. That was not increasing his confidence. Sure, he was god-tier now, but he suspected getting killed would still hurt like a bitch, even if it didn't stick. He was thinking up a suitable quip when two more things made themselves very clear. One, trolls apparently were all about those PDAs. A really fucking tall one was wrapped around one of the shortest ones from behind, all cuddly and shit. There was even nuzzling going on. Nuzzling, by god. And they were both splattered with indigo blood, and a couple others in the case of the tall... Shit. Was that the psychotic juggalo one? He was fucking wearing clown makeup, even if it was smeared and crusted over with blood from some jagged cuts on his face. Scariest PDA in the history of the universe right there. They really needed to get a room. 

But the second thing eclipsed that pretty quickly. It sounded like they'd walked into a forest with crickets and peepers. All kinds of weird chirping shit going on, and Dave couldn't place where they were from at first. Then shorter PDA troll opened his mouth. Dave was expecting a 'hey guys' or even an unironic 'sup' but that was nothing like what came out. There was some weird clicking-creaking shit, buzzing, more chirps--these ones sounded a little different, Dave thought--and at least one trilling noise. And a growl. Great. They made all kinds of animal noises instead of talking. Just _great_. His eyebrows had shot all the way to his hairline and Dave fought the urge to facepalm. This could literally not get any worse--

Until his _bones_ started vibrating. Sounded like someone had kicked up the bass to eleven, and it was so low-pitched that Dave was feeling it more than hearing it. What he _was_ hearing was fucking nightmare inducing. A low rumbling growl, and if he had to guess it was coming right from juggalo troll, who was glaring at him with a wicked sharp set of teeth bared. He braced himself for an attack but short PDA troll started making a noise Dave could only describe as a breathy hissy-whistly thing. The rumbling growl did go a little quieter but it didn't go away. In fact the vibration seemed to settle along his spine suddenly, crackling up and down it like lightning with a weird almost staticky feeling in the small of his back that radiated out and forward and felt way, way too close to _good_ for his peace of mind. Now was not the time to discover that he had a sound and vibration kink, though he honestly couldn't say he was surprised. This whole meeting was unnerving as hell and it hadn't even really started. 

Then he was assaulted by a bunch of clicking and a rapidly oscillating humming sound, along with what he was starting to think of as 'troll gobledegook' and someone trying to lick his hoo-- "Terezi! Hey, the hood is off limits to tongues. No tongues allowed anywhere up on this shit." 

The troll stepped back, showing all her teeth at him in something he thought might be a smile but looked more like a grimace. Blinding red and teal, with a wicked pair of shades. Definitely had to be Terezi. And apparently she blushed teal, though why the hell she was blushing Dave had no idea. He was about to say something when her head suddenly snapped to the side. Dave turned and there was Jade, hand lifted in a friendly wave but completely frozen with a very uncertain look on her face. Didn't take a genius to figure out why either, because every one of the trolls was staring at her all of the sudden like she was dinner or something. At least that's what it felt like to Dave. Maybe there was an innocent explanation but one tiny problem. He didn't have a fucking clue what they were saying. 

And then more troll gobledegook, only much louder and more guttural sounding, from short PDA troll. But he was growling too, under the talking somehow, and the growl made his blood freeze. Honestly, it sounded to Dave like whatever he was saying could maybe, potentially translate to 'Let's roast them all for dinner. Yumyum!' ...He hoped to god that that was completely off. He glanced over and yeah, the others were feeling it too. John had his shoulders scrunched up, curling in on himself, while Jade was giving the trolls borderline scared looks. Rose didn't _look_ too upset, but Dave could tell she was really tense. They didn't say anything, but the trolls kept on making those sounds--clicking and weird almost humming sounds, and of course juggalo troll was still growling--and if he was honest, it was freaking him the fuck out. 

Then the faintly glowing one stepped forward with something Dave was pretty sure was a computer, if kind of organic-looking. The weird troll-sounds were expected by now, but instead of a growl there was a very loud sound that defied an easy description. Kinda like a cat's purring, but also kind of like humming, but it sounded faintly buzzing too. Then it was joined by, for lack of a better word, slightly different note and fuck if it didn't make all the hair on his neck stand the hell right up.

Dave looked over at Jade. "When can we blow this place? This is worse than nails on a chalkboard." No way was he going to admit he was freaked.

"It's not _that_ bad, it's just--" Then John flinched a little under their stairs and sighed. "Okay, so they sound more like horror aliens than cool friendly ones, but they can't help it! We know they're not _really_ horror aliens--" 

"No we sure as hell don't." 

"I have to admit that Dave might be right. However, compared to the horrorterrors their voices are almost sweet, so it _could_ be worse. And if they think they can do anything to four god-tiers, they'll be in for quite the surprise." Rose was smirking, and she wasn't wrong, but still there was that dying probably fucking hurt thing.

Then Jade started rubbing her chin. "It's really weird that in dream bubbles I heard them all speaking English." 

"Not necessarily," Rose looked like she was about to get her psychologist or whatever on, "as dreams could be understood as a direct connection of consciousness--or subconsciousness as the case may be--so it may be that your brain automatically gleaned the meanings and translated for you." 

Dave gave her his best 'that sounds like complete BS' look but she just coolly returned the look. "The horrorterrors do _not_ speak English, but you heard their words as English, didn't you? When I...went grimdark, I heard them as they really sound, but before I heard English. The theory has precedent." 

He was about to say something when he heard sudden chirping and their computers all went off at once. He opened up his to find an invite to one of those cross-time memos, with a nice shade of green text typing away on it. Huh, well, this worked, but like hell was he going to get all cuddly with them. He said as much and got scolded by Jade. She shrugged and gave him a sweet smile, "I'm trying to be nice!"

He shook his head but suddenly short PDA troll started off with their freaky sounds and typing so hard his computer shook. Gray appeared in the memo--so short PDA troll was Karkat--but more importantly juggalo troll's growl had changed again. If it had almost felt good vibrating in him like that before, now it _actually_ felt good and that was really, really unsettling. He barely avoided squirming and on reading over his reply on the memo, winced a little. That wasn't a very cool response. He wasn't going to believe the 'messing with his head' excuse for a minute, but apparently they had growls that meant different things based on frequency. That actually made sense, because he had felt a difference, even if he hadn't quite _heard_ one. Knowing that juggalo was growling in a 'I want to sex you up' way instead of a murderous way wasn't actually any comfort at all, especially since apparently Karkat's growls were now of the murdering sort. 

There were more hissy-whistlies and shit, they were cuddling again, but at least the second growl stopped. Now if only juggalo would stop the felt-too-good growling anytime soon. He almost complained about the cuddling, but decided to respond to Terezi instead. It was probably the safer option. 

Then Rose stepped in and took the reigns of everything, all smooth and in control. Name exchanges, they could do that! Dave had a hunch that they weren't saying the trolls' names anywhere near what they actually were. More than a hunch, really. He was also sure that there was no way they _could_ , but if they were going to get their cultural exchange on, he'd listen, at least. Rose went first, and the sounds they'd picked to represent her name sounded nothing like her name at all. There was some weird trilling birdlike sound instead of an r for one. Only Kanaya actually managed something close after hell of a lot of tries but apparently ms. glowy troll found it painful to say for some reason, by the way she was rubbing her throat. 

As he'd suspected, none of the troll names sounded anything like what humans could produce so it really turned into more of a 'this is how we say it' thing, but what could they do? From keeping an eye on the memo, trolls had three voice-boxes or some shit--was an 'echo-box' a voice box or what?--and humans definitely didn't have anything like that. He felt kind of inadequate, and almost jealous. Man, he wished he could bring his own harmony right along with. Well, not really, because that would apparently mean having horns and insanity problems, but...

And Terezi was up in his face again, repeating the string of sounds he was pretty sure was her name. It was hard as hell because the sounds under them got in the way--all that clicking she was doing--but he knew she'd pester him until he tried again. With a sigh, Dave typed to the memo that if she could cut out all the extra noises maybe he'd be able to hear it better. 

She frowned, and he could tell she was focusing with everything she had to do just that. The sounds still came out weirdly layered--but if he had two, three, whatever voice-boxes he knew he'd sure as hell get good use out of them. Maybe he could get some buzzing going on. "Terezi?" 

Nothing like the buzzes she could make, but better than he had been doing, Dave thought. She gave him the big teeth-baring expression that he hoped was a grin and repeated it, with some typed instructions on the memo. 

This was going to be a long night, but it wasn't like he had anything better to do. Dave tried again.

Troll language was so fucking weird.


End file.
